Just Partners
by OMIDragonrider
Summary: Jessie and James have been "just partners" for years and James is tired of it.  He and Meowth devise a plan to get Jessie to realise that they should be more than "just partners," but when have Team Rocket's plans worked out before?  Rated T for language.


_Just partners_

Those words played over and over again in James's mind as he sat on a tree stump, staring at his partner as she tested out their latest contraption to catch the twerp's electric rodent. He hated those two words. He detested them more than anything in the world. He hated them more than Jessiebelle herself. He'd sooner let Cassidy and her partner (was his name Biff?) catch Pikachu and give the boss that damn rat themselves than have to listen to those two words playing in his head one more time.

"Hey James?" he heard a female's voice call out to him.

James's frustration was automatically directed to her. Jessie – the woman those two words James hated were directed to. They weren't exactly directed _to_ her, in a sense. James would be more than happy if she proposed being more than "just partners," but that was the problem. James had absolutely no idea if she wanted to be more than "just partners" and was fairly certain that she didn't. This, of course, only made him more upset.

"What?" he responded, sounding more harsh than intended.

"What's wrong with you?" the red-head responded.

This made James stand up angrily. "Of course! It's always something wrong with me! Never the oh-so-perfect Jessie!"

"You know what? I _was _going to ask you if you wanted to come with me and swipe something from the nearby Pokémart, but I guess I'll just go by myself!"

"Whatever."

Jessie huffed and stomped off in the direction of the nearest town. James wanted to tell her that she was going the wrong way and that path would only take her deeper into the forest they were currently hiding out in, but decided against it. He was too angry to say one more word to her.

A small cat Pokémon sat next to James. "Why don't cha just tell ha?"

"Tell her what?" James grumbled.

"I seriously doubt I hafta tell ya dat."

"I'm not telling her anything."

"Why not?"

James sighed and pushed the strand of blue hair out of his face, only to have it fall in the exact same spot. "Because she doesn't feel the same way."

"How do ya know that?"

"You just saw what happened."

Meowth waved a hand dismissively. "Eh, she was jus' mad at cha."

"That doesn't make me feel any better."

"Well you kinda desoived it."

"Shove it, Meowth."

"Hey! I was jus' tellin' yous!"

"Look, I know I deserved it, but that's not very helpful right now!"

"Why was you so mad at ha anyway?"

James adjusted his position on the stump, sliding off of it and leaning his back against it. "It's not her I'm mad at, it's just…well…"

"Well?" Meowth asked expectantly.

"I'm just mad at our relationship I guess."

"Relationship?"

"Yeah."

"You're partnas."

"Yeah, _just_ partners."

Meowth brought a paw to his chin and began to think. "Well we're jus' gonna hafta change dat, now aren't we?"

"And how exactly is that going to work?"

"Let Meowth tink…" Meowth snapped his fingers. "I got it! So here's da plan…"

Meowth whispered his plan gleefully into James's ear as James listened, his eyes growing wider with each detail.

"Are you sure this is going to work?"

"Of course it's gonna woik! All yous gotta do is grow a set an' you'll be fine!"

"Hey!" James protested.

"Trust me, if ya did soona, ya woulda gotten with ha _way_ befo' now!"

James only muttered "asswipe" under his breath as he began to run a couple more tests on the robot, wondering if his companion's plan would really work…

"LOOKS LIKE TEAM ROCKET'S BLASTINGOFF AGAIN!"

The robot the trio had spent hours working on was now blown to bits, the three of them being blown sky high. The only thing that was different was that Meowth and the team's Pokémon were separated from Jessie and James and were currently flying in a different direction.

"Meowth!" James called out to his friend.

"It's all part a da plan, Jimmy!" Meowth called back.

"What plan?" Jessie said, raising her voice to be heard over the roar of the wind in their ears.

"Uh…I have no idea!"

About an hour or so later, the two landed in the middle of another large forest. Right away, Jessie sprang up and brushed the leaves and dirt off of her as she began her search for Meowth and the other Pokémon.

"Where could they be?" she asked, digging through a nearby bush.

"I have no idea!" James answered, also searching in an attempt to not look suspicious.

"Well keep looking!"

"Actually," James looked at the sky, "it's getting kind of late. I think we should set up camp and search in the morning. I'm sure they'll be fine."

Jessie sighed. "I guess you're right."

James immediately went to the Meowth balloon, which, thankfully, stayed with the duo during the blast off. He pulled out two sleeping bags and tossed one to Jessie. Jessie unrolled it, only to find it completely torn up and unusable.

"What the hell?" she exclaimed.

"Uh…" James stammered. "Maybe it was…that Scyther we saw earlier!"

"Damn Scyther. I hate those things."

James nodded.

"Well what am I supposed to do now?"

"You could share mine."

Jessie looked at James as if he had just sprouted a second head.

"I-I mean just to keep warm! It's cold and neither one of us will be comfortable without a sleeping bag!" James stammered quickly.

Jessie raised an eyebrow.

"Just to keep warm."

"I guess you're right."

James smiled shyly and began to change into his pajamas. Jessie changed into her pink nightgown. James's heart almost stopped at the sight of her and the knowledge that she was going to be pressed up against him in a small and slightly revealing garment.

"Uh…"

"What?"

"Nothing at all!" James said, sounding slightly too cheerful as he climbed into the sleeping bag.

Jessie climbed in after him and was asleep within minutes. James could understand completely. They've had a very long day. But he couldn't help but be slightly mad at her for leaving him in this situation. He was pressed up against his beautiful partner who was wearing nothing but a flimsy nightgown and was asleep and completely at his mercy. Naturally, he was aroused by this. Having known Jessie for thirteen years, he was more than familiar with her body and having every inch of it against him only excited him more. Her natural scent masked slightly by her perfume was all too intoxicating. Her long, soft red hair was still in its usual curve, but beginning to fall out into its natural wavy style. James was pressed up against the woman of his dreams and, being the gentleman he is, couldn't even do anything about it!

"Oh sweet Mew!" he muttered under his breath as she rolled in her sleep, her chest now pressed against him. "Meowth, this is _not_ what I meant!"

James's muttering was louder than he though as he felt Jessie begin to stir.

"What are you going on about now, James?" she asked, slightly annoyed.

"Oh! I, uh…" he stammered. "Nothing! Go back to sleep!"

Jessie sat up, leaning on her left arm. "Are you alright, James?"

"Fine, why do you ask?"

"You seem a little jumpy."

"Jumpy? No, I'm fine!" he responded quickly, heat rising to his face. He was certainly having no problem with being warm enough.

"James, what is going on? You've been acting weird all day!"

This seemingly innocent little comment was what made James finally snap. He stood up and shouted "You want to know why I've been acting 'weird' all day? It's because of _you_! You've just been parading around all day, acting like nothing's ever wrong and then get upset with me for not being exactly what you want me to be every damn second of every damn day! It's all because of you!"

This made Jessie stand up, taken aback. "What did I do?"

"The same thing you've been doing for the past thirteen years! You always try to find some way to just rile me up and make me crazy with your skimpy little outfits and your flirty comments that you don't even mean anything by!"

Jessie could only look at James in shock and he knew this was it. "All or nothing, Jimmy," he thought to himself as he grabbed Jessie's shoulders.

"Jessie, I am in love with you! I have been for the past thirteen years! Thirteen years, Jessie! It's been driving me insane! Of course I thought it was nothing at first and it would go away, but guess what! It fucking has it! I can't help it! I've fallen head over fucking heels for you and you don't even seem fazed by it!"

Jessie looked into James eyes as tears fell freely from them. She knew every word he said was true, but she didn't know how to react. "But James, we're partners…"

"So?"

"I don't want to ruin what we have, James. I'm sorry, but we're just partners."

_Just partners_

_ Just partners_

_ Just partners_

James looked in her eyes, devastated. The two words he hated the most had just spilled from the lips of the love of his life. The tears were just about to turn into sobs until…

"Hang on…" James thought to himself.

Jessie's emotions were always seen in her eyes. If James couldn't tell what she was feeling, he simply looked in her eyes. Her eyes always expressed what she felt, especially when her mouth says something completely different.

To the average person, it would seem that Jessie had meant exactly what she said – she didn't like James as anything more than a partner. James, however, was not the average person. At first glance, James had thought that Jessie was telling the truth. But at a closer glance he could see more. For the most part, Jessie was being honest. She didn't want to risk anything disrupting their strong balance of friendship and partnership. However, James saw something more masked underneath all of her platonic crap – longing, desire, love. Jessie wanted more too.

_Just partners_

"Like hell we are!"

And with that, James pulled Jessie into a passionate kiss. Jessie immediately resisted, grabbing James's shoulders in an attempt to push him away. But James had the upper hand, wrapping one arm around her waist and the other around her neck. After a few seconds, Jessie closed her eyes and began to reciprocate. James moaned in pure ecstasy and massaged the exposed skin on Jessie's thighs, causing her to moan herself and run her hands under his shirt. James fell back onto the sleeping bag and pulled Jessie on top of him, exposing generous amounts of her cleavage and legs. Things were just about to go further when –

"Oh Arceus! Is dis what I have ta see when I get back hea?"

The two new lovebirds looked up in surprise and saw their feline companion standing over them with Pokéballs in his arms. He smiled at his two partners.

"Glad ta see the plan woiked!"

"Plan?" Jessie asked, confused.

"Yup! Ya see, James was mad at cha earlia because he was tiyad a bein' jus' partnahs. And I'm gonna guess he told yous dat much, by da look a tings."

"But what plan?"

"Well ole Jimmy boy was talkin' ta me about tryin' ta get yous two tahgetta. Oh course I'm all for dis 'cause yous two are da biggest pair a love Pidgeys I eva seen! So I told Jim dat, since we was obviously gonna blast off at some point taday, I'd poipously get separated from the two a yous so yous could have ya," Meowth smirked, "alone time."

Both blushed.

"And I'm just glad to see my brilliant plan woiked!"

Jessie looked at James. "You planned all of this?"

James smiled shyly and put a hand to the back of his neck. "Well, Meowth did, but I –"

James was cut off by Jessie's arms thrown around him. "That is the sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me!"

"Hey!" Meowth jumped in between the two. "Meowth helped!"

The two immediately grabbed Meowth and pulled him into a hug. "Meowth you're the best! How can we ever thank you?" the two exclaimed together.

"Just keep ya 'relationship' away from da campsite! I don't wanna hear what cha gonna be doin' on ya free time!"

Jessie and James both blushed heavily, thinking about what they were almost about to do before they were interrupted by their Pokémon.

"Go ahead," Meowth said with a smile. "Just keep it far enough so I don' hafta listen to it!"

The two quickly ran off into the forest, goofy smiles plastered on their faces. "Thanks, Meowth!" they called as they disappeared to finish their unattended business.

"Hey, jus' be sho' ta bring back some fiyahwood!"

"Yeah, yeah!"

Hours later, Meowth heard the rustle of the bushes and his partners giggling and then the sound of lips pressing together. After another fit of giggles, and exchanging of sweet goodnights, the camp was filled with silence once again. Meowth opened his eyes and smiled at the sight of his two best friends intertwined under the sleeping bag. After a brief look around the campsite, he let out a small sigh.

Not a single piece of firewood made it back.


End file.
